Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day/Chinese New Year!

My boyfriend Paul had to work on Valentine's night, so we decided to go out for a casual V-day lunch. Since today was the Chinese New Year, we "fed two birds with one seed" by dining at a Chinese restaurant. We chose A-Tan Restaurant, a veg-friendly Chinese joint, sushi bar, and hibachi grill. Of course, we opted for Chinese entrees instead of sushi. And we started our meal with a Flaming Volcano cocktail:

This drink is literally on fire. The moat around the volcano contains a tropical cocktail made with rum, brandy, pineapple juice, and orange juice. A shot of Bacardi 151 is poured into the volcano's crater and the bartender sets it on fire at your table. See for yourself:

After tearing through a veggie spring roll, I helped myself to a plate of Family Style Bean Curd with sticky white rice:

The tofu is cut into triangles and lightly fried to perfection, and the veggie mix contains all my faves — bamboo shoots, baby corn, mushrooms, water chesnuts, snow peas, and carrots.

While we were eating, we noticed a crew of young guys outside who appeared to be suiting up for some kind of performance. A few minutes later, we saw this happy Buddha guy walking toward our table:

And he was followed by this crazy tiger:

A yellow tiger was on the trail the of the red one, and they paraded through the restaurant performing dances and tricks while a drummer pounded a tribal beat. Here they are making their way through the hibachi area:

We had no idea the restaurant organized an annual Chinese New Year parade. It was quite a fun Valentine's Day surprise!

Speaking of A-Tan Restaurant, I've added a comprehensive Memphis vegan dining guide on the right sidebar of this page (underneath my profile info). A-Tan's contact info is included, as well as a number of other vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants in Memphis. Hopefully, it'll be of use to local readers and any vegans planning a trip to Memphis.

what a great idea on the dining guide, Bianca - i'm gonna follow your lead and do something similar. that's brilliant! so awesome on the parade! your tofus look wonderful and you and Paul are just too cute! i hope you had an awesome weekend, and that you're having a great start to your week too!

What a great V-Day date and that ginormous cocktail looks like a party in a glass! I love Chinese New Year, and it's my year this year-the year of the tiger! Hope you had a great Valentine's Day. You and your boo are too cute.

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.